All posts tagged Startups

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The Problem
2016. There are more startups than money, talent or consumers can support or even VC money can fund. We’re reaching a point where the pendulum is swinging back in the other direction for startups to be profitable. I mean profitable beyond just on a cash flow bases. This should always be a goal from day one with your startup. Spending more money then you make to acquire a customer is a losing business model.

The question then becomes; how do you build a startup marketing engine to fuel your growth? Over the last 10 years I’ve worked around the world from Toronto to Sydney, Melbourne to London and now I’m back home in Canada giving Vancouver a run. One phrase that keeps coming up is how different I work then some of my colleagues in marketing over the last decade. I thought I’d share some of my thinking and how I work.

The Answer
Answering how you fuel your growth can be the difference between being number one in your space and being dead last. Though you don’t have to be number one in your space to win. You could be number two or even carve out a niche focus within an industry that attracts customers to your brand. This isn’t a question of out spending your competition like Uber does because that’s not the reality of most startups in the world. Plus Uber is spending money to subsidies their customer’s purchases. Being number one or a leader in your space is a question of doing the following:

Focus Your Marketing

Position Your Brand

Foundation: Build That Basement

Customers: Know Them. Love Them

These are the areas in marketing that is going to separates A+ work that is going to shift your business from small startup to a rocket ship growth. Otherwise, you’ll have average or worse yet, mediocre marketing that most startups do and think they just have to outspend to win the war. Having my last startup, mopp.com, exit with an acquisition after I came on board after 9 month earlier is a testament to my process and data informed approach to marketing.

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I took an extra day off yesterday and used that time to reflect on what I wanted from this blog in 2007. I wanted to grow more professional, but also use this blog as a tool to connect and meet more PR bloggers and grow my network. I hope to have my blog stand out as I connect gaming and PR, and show what this entertainment medium has to offer. Videogames are changing quickly these days and as Nintendo’s Wii grows in popularity, so does the hobby I’ve loved since I was 8. If you come to this blog on a regular bases, I hope to cover the following:

Game Industry
I’m going to cover examples of good and bad PR within the industry, but also point out interesting articles that show a lot of the benefits being involved with videogames can bring. We often get a bad reputation from mainstream press who blow story’s and situations out of context or report on issues that might not be as bad as they said, due to a lack of knowledge and just wanting to sell papers. Sex, and violence are in videogames and have been for a long time, this is nothing new and the mainstream press needs to realize this. Your child won’t find anything worse in videogames then what he/she would find on basic cable late at night. You can also check out my delicious links in the sidebar for interesting press on the industry. Tomorrow I’ll cover Child’s Play and show how gamers are giving back to kids around the globe at Christmas.

Working in the performance marketing space for 8 of the last 10 years has been amazing. I’ve been able to use many tools and services to do my job better (and faster). Maintaining quality should always been […]